In the cacophony of internet storytelling, the emphasis on speed and volume can drown out richer and more immersive storytelling. Part of the problem is the existing platforms and what we've come to expect from them: 140 characters is deliberately restrictive, and blogs are meant to be punchy.Cowbird, the latest project from digital media artist and storyteller Jonathan Harris, provides a new community forum for interactive, multimedia storytelling. The goal is to create a space for "deeper, longer-lasting, more personal storytelling than you're likely to find anywhere else on the web."
The publishing tool, which was released publicly today, allows users to keep personal diaries or contribute their stories to collaboratively chart the progress of a news events, or "sagas," which Harris defines as "things that touch millions of lives and define the human story," like Occupy Wall Street. The story of the Occupy movement—unfolding as a series of moments affecting people across the world, broadcasted via a vast array of media—is knit together on Cowbird as a mosaic of time-plotted images, words, and audio submitted by participants.
There's the image of the first ever general assembly at Zuccotti Park on September 17. There's the moment on October 30 when one protester kisses his girlfriend goodbye before leaving Missoula, Montana to join the movement. Or the story that Harris himself shares of his arrest at Occupy Oakland on November 3. The tool's tagging features allow you to zero in on the different characters or places that compose a story. According to the site, the ultimate goal is "a public library of human experience—kind of like a Wikipedia for real life (but much more beautiful)."
Even if you're not politically inclined, Cowbird provides many features that make the platform stand out from other publishing tools. Storytellers can easily post full-screen photos, geotag moments to create a map of their lives, create subtitles for audio to play alongside images, and even turn those subtitles into links.
Cowbird is slowly adding new members, so if you're interested, click here to apply for an invitation.
Tutpup is a fun site for math and spelling practice. The feature that engages students is the competitive aspect. Once you join a game, you are matched with students from around the world. This simple feature adds a whole new experience.
What if every light bulb in the world could also transmit data? At TEDGlobal, Harald Haas demonstrates, for the first time, a device that could do exactly that. By flickering the light from a single LED, a change too quick for the human eye to detect, he can transmit far more data than a cellular tower -- and do it in a way that's more efficient, secure and widespread.
Do you know that we have 1.4 million cellular radio masts deployed worldwide? And these are base stations. And we also have more than five billion of these devices here. These are cellular mobile phones. And with these mobile phones, we transmit more than 600 terabytes of data every month. This is a 6 with 14 zeroes -- a very large number. And wireless communications has become a utility like electricity and water. We use it everyday. We use it in our everyday lives now -- in our private lives, in our business lives. And we even have to be asked sometimes, very kindly, to switch off the mobile phone at events like this for good reasons. And it's this importance why I decided to look into the issues that this technology has, because it's so fundamental to our lives.
And one of the issues is capacity. The way we transmit wireless data is by using electromagnetic waves -- in particular, radio waves. And radio waves are limited. They are scarce; they are expensive; and we only have a certain range of it. And it's this limitation that doesn't cope with the demand of wireless data transmissions and the number of bytes and data which are transmitted every month. And they are simply running out of spectrum. There's another problem. That is efficiency. These 1.4 million cellular radio masts, or base stations, consume a lot of energy. And mind you, most of the energy is not used to transmit the radio waves, it is used to cool the base stations. Then the efficiency of such a base station is only at about five percent. And that creates a big problem. Then there's another issue that you're all aware of. You have to switch off your mobile phone during flights. In hospitals, they are security issues. And security is another issue. These radio waves penetrate through walls. They can be intercepted, and somebody can make use of your network if he has bad intentions.
So these are the main four issues. But on the other hand, we have 14 billion of these: light bulbs, light. And light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. So let's look at this in the context of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, where we have gamma rays. You don't want to get close to gamma rays, it could be dangerous. X-rays, useful when you go to hospitals. Then there's ultraviolet light. it's good for a nice suntan, but otherwise dangerous for the human body. Infrared -- due to eye safety regulations, you can only use it with low power. And then we have the radio waves, they have the issues I've just mentioned. And in the middle there, we have this visible light spectrum. It's light, and light has been around for many millions of years. And in fact, it has created us, has created life, has created all the stuff of life. So it's inherently safe to use. And wouldn't it be great to use that for wireless communications.
Not only that, I compared it to the entire spectrum. I compared the radio waves spectrum -- the size of it -- with the size of the visible light spectrum. And guess what? We have 10,000 times more of that spectrum, which is there for us to use. So not only do we have this huge amount of spectrum, let's compare them with a number I've just mentioned. We have 1.4 million expensively deployed, inefficient radio cellular base stations. And multiply that by 10,000, then you end up at 14 billion. 14 billion is the number of light bulbs installed already. So we have the infrastructure there. Look at the ceiling, you see all these light bulbs. Go to the main floor, you see these light bulbs.
Can we use them for communications? Yes. What do we need to do? The one thing we need to do is we have to replace these inefficient incandescent light bulbs, florescent lights, with this new technology of LED, LED light bulbs. An LED is a semiconductor. It's an electronic device. And it has a very nice acute property. Its intensity can be modulated at very high speeds, and it can be switched off at very high speeds. And this is a fundamental basic property that we explored with our technology. So let's show how we do that. Let's go to the closest neighbor to the visible light spectrum -- go to remote controls. You all know remote controls have an infrared LED -- basically you switch on the LED, and if it's off, you switch it off. And it creates a simple, low-speed data stream in 10,000 bits per second, 20,000 bits per second. Not usable for a YouTube video.
What we have done is we have developed a technology with which we can furthermore replace the remote control of our light bulb. We transmit with our technology, not only a single data stream, we transmit thousands of data streams in parallel, at even higher speeds. And the technology we have developed -- it's called SIM OFDM. And it's spacial modulation -- these are the only technical terms, I'm not going into details -- but this is how we enabled that light source to transmit data.
You will say, "Okay, this is nice -- a slide created in 10 minutes." But not only that. What we've done is we have also developed a demonstrator. And I'm showing for the first time in public this visible light demonstrator. And what we have here is an ordinary desk lamp. We fit in an LED light bulb, worth three U.S. dollars, put in our signal processing technology. And then what we have here is a little hole. And the light goes through that hole. There's a receiver. The receiver will convert these little, subtle changes in the amplitude that we create there into an electrical signal. And that electrical signal is then converted back to a high-speed data stream. In the future we hope that we can integrate this little hole into these smart phones. And not only integrate a photo detector here, but maybe use the camera inside.
So what happens when I switch on that light? As you would expect, it's a light, a desk lamp. Put your book beneath it and you can read. It's illuminating the space. But at the same time, you see this video coming up here. And that's a video, a high-definition video that is transmitted through that light beam. You're critical. You think, "Ha, ha, ha. This is a smart academic doing a little bit of tricks here." But let me do this.
(Applause)
Once again. Still don't believe? It is this light that transmits this high-definition video in a split stream. And if you look at the light, it is illuminating as you would expect. You don't notice with your human eye. You don't notice the subtle changes in the amplitude that we impress onto this light bulb. It's serving the purpose of illumination, but at the same time, we are able to transmit this data. And you can just see, even light from the ceiling comes down here to the receiver. It can ignore that constant light, because all the receiver's interested in are subtle changes. You also have a critical question now and then. You say, "Okay, do I have to have the light on all the time to have this working?" And the answer is yes. But, you can dim down the light to a level that it appears to be off. And you are still able to transmit data -- that's possible.
So I've mentioned to you the four challenges. Capacity: We have 10,000 times more spectrum, 10,000 times more LEDs installed already in the infrastructure. You would agree with me, hopefully, there's no issue of capacity anymore. Efficiency: This is data through illumination -- it's first of all an illumination device. And if you do the energy budget, the data transmission comes for free -- highly energy efficient. I don't mention the high energy efficiency of these LED light bulbs. If the whole world would deploy them, you would save hundreds of power plants. That's aside.
And then I've mentioned the availability. You will agree with me that we have lights in the hospital. You need to see what to do. You have lights in an aircraft. So it's everywhere there is light. Look around. Everywhere. Look at your smart phone. It has a flashlight, an LED flashlight. These are potential sources for high-speed data transmission.
And then there's security. You would agree with me that light doesn't penetrate through walls. So no one, if I have a light here, if I have secure data, no one on the other side of this room through that wall would be able to read that data. And there's only data where there is light. So if I don't want that receiver to receive the data, then what I could do, turn it away. So the data goes in that direction, not there anymore. Now we can in fact see where the data is going to.
So for me, the applications of it, to me, are beyond imagination at the moment. We have had a century of very nice, smart application developers. And you only have to notice, where we have light, there is a potential way to transmit data. But I can give you a few examples. Well you may see the impact already now. This is a remote operated vehicle beneath the oceans. And they use light to illuminate space down there. And this light can be used to transmit wireless data that these things [use] to communicate with each other.
Intrinsically safe environments like this petrochemical plant -- you can't use RF, it may generate antenna sparks, but it can use light -- you see plenty of light there. In hospitals, for new medical instruments; in streets for traffic control. Cars have LED-based headlights, LED-based back lights, and cars can communicate with each other and prevent accidents in the way that they exchange information. Traffic lights can communicate to the car and so on. And then you have these millions of street lamps deployed around the world. And every street lamp would be a free access point. We call it, in fact, a Li-Fi, light-fidelity. And then we have these aircraft cabins. There are hundreds of lights in an aircraft cabin, and each of these lights could be a potential transmitter of wireless data. So you could enjoy your most favorite TED video on your long flight back home. Online life. So I think that is a vision that is possible.
So, all we would need to do is to fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device. And this would then combine two basic functionalities: illumination and wireless data transmission. And it's this symbiosis that I personally believe could solve the four essential problems that face us in wireless communication these days. And in the future, you would not only have 14 billion light bulbs, you may have 14 billion Li-Fis deployed worldwide -- for a cleaner, a greener, and even a brighter future.
Using robotics, laser rangefinders, GPS and smart feedback tools, Dennis Hong is building a car for drivers who are blind. It's not a "self-driving" car, he's careful to note, but a car in which a non-sighted driver can determine speed, proximity and route -- and drive independently.
Many believe driving is an activity solely reserved for those who can see. A blind person driving a vehicle safely and independently was thought to be an impossible task, until now. Hello, my name is Dennis Hong, and we're bringing freedom and independence to the blind by building a vehicle for the visually impaired.
So before I talk about this car for the blind, let me briefly tell you about another project that I worked on called the DARPA Urban Challenge. Now this was about building a robotic car that can drive itself. You press start, nobody touches anything, and it can reach its destination fully autonomously. So in 2007, our team won half a million dollars by placing third place in this competition. So about that time, the National Federation of the Blind, or NFB, challenged the research committee about who can develop a car that lets a blind person drive safely and independently. We decided to give it a try, because we thought, hey, how hard could it be. We have already an autonomous vehicle. We just put a blind person in it and we're done, right? (Laughter) We couldn't have been more wrong. What NFB wanted was not a vehicle that can drive a blind person around, but a vehicle where a blind person can make active decisions and drive. So we had to throw everything out the window and start from scratch.
So to test this crazy idea, we developed a small dune buggy prototype vehicle to test the feasibility. And in the summer of 2009, we invited dozens of blind youth from all over the country and gave them a chance to take it for a spin. It was an absolutely amazing experience. But the problem with this car was it was designed to only be driven in a very controlled environment, in a flat closed-off parking lot -- even the lanes defined by red traffic cones.
So with this success, we decided to take the next big step, to develop a real car that can be driven on real roads. So how does it work? Well, it's a rather complex system, but let me try to explain it, maybe simplify it. So we have three steps. We have perception, computation and non-visual interfaces. Now obviously the driver cannot see, so the system needs to perceive the environment and gather information for the driver. For that, we use an initial measurement unit. So it measures acceleration, angular acceleration -- like a human ear, inner ear. We fuse that information with a GPS unit to get an estimate of the location of the car. We also use two cameras to detect the lanes of the road. And we also use three laser range finders. The lasers scan the environment to detect obstacles -- a car approaching from the front, the back and also any obstacles that run into the roads, any obstacles around the vehicle.
So all this vast amount of information is then fed into the computer, and the computer can do two things. One is, first of all, process this information to have an understanding of the environment -- these are the lanes of the road, there's the obstacles -- and convey this information to the driver. The system is also smart enough to figure out the safest way to operate the car. So we can also generate instructions on how to operate the controls of the vehicle. But the problem is this: How do we convey this information and instructions to a person who cannot see fast enough and accurate enough so he can drive? So for this, we developed many different types of non-visual user interface technology. So starting from a three-dimensional ping sound system, a vibration vest, a click wheel with voice commands, a leg strip, even a shoe that applies pressure to the foot. But today we're going to talk about three of these non-visual user interfaces.
Now the first interface is called a DriveGrip. So these are a pair of gloves, and it has vibrating elements on the knuckle part, so you can convey instructions about how to steer -- the direction and the intensity. Another device is called SpeedStrip. So this is a chair -- as a matter of fact, it's actually a massage chair. We gut it out, and we rearrange the vibrating elements in different patterns. And we actuate them to convey information about the speed, and also instructions how to use the gas and the brake pedal. So over here, you can see how the computer understands the environment. And because you cannot see the vibration, we actually put red LED's on the driver, so he can actually see what's happening. This is the sensory data, and that data is transferred to the devices through the computer.
So these two devices, DriveGrip and SpeedStrip, are very effective. But the problem is these are instructional cue devices. So this is not really freedom, right? The computer tells you how to drive -- turn left, turn right, speed up, stop. We call this the backseat driver problem. So we're moving away from the instructional cue devices, and we're now focusing more on the informational devices. A good example for this informational non-visual user interface is called AirPix. So think of it as a monitor for the blind. So it's a small tablet, has many holes in it, and compressed air comes out, so it can actually draw images. So even though you are blind, you can put your hand over it, you can see the lanes of the road and obstacles. Actually, you can also change the frequency of the air coming out and possibly the temperature. So it's actually a multi-dimensional user interface. So here you can see the left camera, the right camera from the vehicle and how the computer interprets that and sends that information to the AirPix. For this, we're showing a simulator, a blind person driving using the AirPix. This simulator was also very useful for training the blind drivers and also quickly testing different types of ideas for different types of non-visual user interfaces. So basically that's how it works.
So just a month ago on January 29th, we unveiled this vehicle for the very first time to the public at the world famous Daytona International Speedway during the Rolex 24 racing event. We also had some surprises. Let's take a look.
(Music)
(Video) Announcer: This is an historic day [unclear]. He's coming up to the grandstand, fellow Federistas.
(Cheering)
(Honking)
There's the grandstand now. And he's [unclear] following that van that's out in front of him. Well there comes the first box. Now let's see if Mark avoids it. He does. He passes it on the right. Third box is out. The fourth box is out. And he's perfectly making his way between the two. He's closing in on the van to make the moving pass. Well this is what it's all about, this kind of dynamic display of audacity and ingenuity. He's approaching the end of the run, makes his way between the barrels that are set up there.
(Honking)
(Applause)
Dennis Hong: I'm so happy for you. Mark's going to give me a ride back to the hotel.
Mark Riccobono: Yes.
(Applause)
DH: So since we started this project, we've been getting hundreds of letters, emails, phone calls from people from all around the world. Letters thanking us, but sometimes you also get funny letters like this one: "Now I understand why there is Braille on a drive up ATM machine." (Laughter) But sometimes -- (Laughter) But sometimes I also do get -- I wouldn't call it hate mail -- but letters of really strong concern: "Dr. Hong, are you insane, trying to put blind people on the road? You must be out of your mind." But this vehicle is a prototype vehicle, and it's not going to be on the road until it's proven as safe as, or safer than, today's vehicle. And I truly believe that this can happen.
But still, will the society, would they accept such a radical idea? How are we going to handle insurance? How are we going to issue driver's licenses? There's many of these different kinds of hurdles besides technology challenges that we need to address before this becomes a reality. Of course, the main goal of this project is to develop a car for the blind. But potentially more important than this is the tremendous value of the spin-off technology that can come from this project. The sensors that are used can see through the dark, the fog and rain. And together with this new type of interfaces, we can use these technologies and apply them to safer cars for sighted people. Or for the blind, everyday home appliances -- in the educational setting, in the office setting. Just imagine, in a classroom a teacher writes on the blackboard and a blind student can see what's written and read using these non-visual interfaces. This is priceless. So today, the things I've showed you today, is just the beginning.
A review of Alternate Reality Games and their educational impact, for a class in Disruptive Technologies (CI597A) at Penn State.
In 2006, Channel 4 and Hi Res! worked with the creators of Lost to develop an online Alternate Reality Game. The result was The Lost Experience. Watch the official Channel 4 story now.
In David Fincher’s psychological thriller The Game, the line between novel play and true life is blurred to conspiratorial extremes. While real world ARGs (alternate reality games) may lack that level of Hollywood drama, they do embed stories in everyday places and experiences, often elevating the ordinary into the extraordinary. In the wake of the conclusion of Games of Nonchalance, a number of new ARGs have been staged recently.
What gamers want: Researchers develop tool to predict player behavior
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new method that can accurately predict the behavior of players in online role-playing games. The tool could be used by the game industry to develop new game content, or to help steer players to the parts of a game they will enjoy most.
Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.
Is such progress avoidable? If not to be avoided, can events be guided so that we may survive? These questions are investigated. Some possible answers (and some further dangers) are presented.
The universe isn't behaving. Or at least, that's the view of many of the world's leading scientists: the universe behaves as if there is far more matter than we can observe. And that's important, because it means either that vital scientific theories are wrong, or that there are whole new types of stuff that we haven't yet discovered.
Mapping Dark Matter is a image analysis competition whose aim is to encourage the development of new algorithms that can be applied to challenge of measuring the tiny distortions in galaxy images caused by dark matter.
The aim is to measure the shapes of galaxies to reconstruct the gravitational lensing signal in the presence of noise and a known Point Spread Function. The signal is a very small change in the galaxies’ ellipticity, an exactly circular galaxy image would be changed into an ellipse; however real galaxies are not circular.
The challenge is to measure the ellipticity of 100,000 simulated galaxies.
The deal gives Lowe's just under a 20 percent stake in Sungevity, according to a solar industry source, though neither company would discuss specific dollar figures.
Under the agreement, scheduled to launch in 30 Lowe's stores in California in July, customers will be able to access kiosks equipped with Sugevity's iQuote system, a Web-based application that allows homeowners to simply enter their address and receive a firm installation estimate within 24 hours, eliminating the expense of an on-site visit.
The term "singularity," which is often heard today, comes originally from my field, theoretical physics. It denotes a point in space and time where the gravitational field becomes infinite. At the center of a black hole, for example, we might find a singularity. It also refers to a mathematical term where a certain function also becomes infinite. But the type of singularity that you have probably been hearing about the most lately is called "The Technological Singularity" and although its not a new concept, it's definitely becoming more of a mainstream topic of conversation.
Countless books on the subject are being published on a consistent basis, and Ray Kurzweil just recently launched his documentary, "The Transcendent Man" which shares his vision of a world in which humans merge with machines and is currently screening in sold-out screenings around the planet, web forums, blogs and video sites.
Quiet Read is a Mac application–available in a free as well as a $10 “Pro” version–for saving and managing the links you collect as you browse the Web. Sure, you can use other services like Read It Later, Evernote,Delicious (and alternatives to Delicious) to keep track of all of your links. However, Quiet Read is described by its developer as “light and simple”: you highlight the URL in the address bar and then drag it to the menu bar icon to save it. That icon will display a number to let you know how many different links are currently stored in your inbox. With the paid “Pro” version you can export those links in a variety of different ways: directly to Instapaper, to Read It Later, to Delicious, or to Pinboard; as an HTML-encoded list; or as a CSV file.
If you frequently find yourself sharing lists of Web links with others, then this is a very useful app: it makes short work of turning a list of such links into a document (HTML) or spreadsheet (CSV).
How about you? Do you have a favorite strategy or software application to save and manage your links? In particular, is there a similar app for Windows? Let’s hear from you in the comments.
Researchers Confirm Link between Hydraulic Fracking and Flammable Water ProPublica is reporting a new scientific study has linked natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with drinking water contamination, in some cases so severe that some faucets can be lit on fire. The researchers from Duke University found that levels of flammable methane gas in drinking water wells increased to dangerous levels when those water supplies were close to natural gas wells. The study was based on 68 drinking water wells in northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York State. In 2010, Josh Fox, the director of the documentary film Gasland, appeared on Democracy Now! and talked about how he filmed one man in Colorado who could light his faucet water on fire. Josh Fox, director of Gasland : “So, a lot of people in that area, which is a heavy gas drilling area, would go ahead and test it themselves. And he discovered, lo and behold, that he could light his water on fire. So what you see right there is this enormous explosion coming right out of Mike’s sink. I ended up doing it myself, you know, and lighting the water on fire out of the sink."
The future is here! Neuroware is reality! As a hat with fluffy cat ears... If you're a sci-fi geek, you'll have been long waiting for neuroware - items that use your brain waves to control things such as phone communication, email, mapping and more. In the military, you could use neuroware to read vital signs of troops in the field and feed them info on their surrounds. In the consumer world, it could measure your interest levels in things you see and be used to feed you information on what matters to you.
Or, it could be used to power fluffy cat ears.
Yes, the neuroware world is here and it'll be used first to read your brain waves and have a set of animatronic cat ears react to your emotions.
Concentrate and your ears perk up. Get sad and they drop.
We created new human's organs that use brain wave sensor. "necomimi"is the new communication tool that augments human's body and ability.
For a spherical mirror, an object at the mirror's center has an image that is also at the center. Its magnification is −1
Senior Staff Scientist Thomas Humphrey invents a simple experiment to see if the Giant Mirror is spherical or parabolic. By placing a ping pong ball at the center of curvature, he's able to prove the mirror is out of pure sphericity by about one-quarter of one degree.
Exhibit developer Erik walks backward, away from the giant spherical mirror. Watch how moving through the mirror's focal point and center of curvature changes everything.
UMKC Physics Department's Professor Jerzy Wrobel explains how spherical mirrors produce images. He shows how to construct a ray diagram and use the mirror equation.
UMKC Physics Department's Professor Jerzy Wrobel explains the necessary condition for seeing an object and the formation of images by a flat refractive surface and plane mirror. He discusses conditions for total internal reflection and evaluates the critical angle.
Physicists at Stanford, who have spearheaded the billion-dollar Gravity Probe B mission, have announced that they have found Einstein's missing inch, once again proving the correctness of general relativity.
Technology giants Sony, Apple and Google have all faced major scandals in recent weeks that raise a host of questions about privacy in the digital age. Apple’s popular iPhone was designed to secretly track a user’s location without the user’s knowledge, and so was Google’s Android system for smartphones. Sony’s PlayStation Network has exposed the personal records of more than 100 million of its customers. We speak to Mark Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, who notes that in addition to privacy breaches, these private companies are essentially doing a better job with popular surveillance than the government, creating a detailed personal record that then can be released by a subpoena.
Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
While Gmail's Priority Inbox is surprisingly good at figuring out what's important, we recommend setting up a few quick filters, labels and tools of your own for even more control. It might take a bit more time, but these 9 tips will help you whip your inbox into shape, stay organized and cut down on email clutter. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/31/google-priority-inbox-lau_n_700207.html
If we missed any of your favorites, share them in the comments below, or upload them using the "Add a Slide" tool!
If you found these tips helpful, you might also like our 21 essential Gmail tricks.
alternative energy sources.Energy sources different from those in widespread use at the moment (which are referred to as conventional). Alternative energy usually includes solar, wind, wave, tidal, hydroelectric and geothermal energy. Although they each have their own drawbacks, none of these energy sources produces significant air pollution, unlike conventional sources.
fossil fuels. Carbon or hydrocarbon fuels, derived from what was living material, and found underground or beneath the sea. The most common forms are coal, oil and natural gas. They take millions of years to form. Their energy is only released upon burning, when the carbon and hydrogen within them combine with the oxygen in air to form carbon dioxide (CO2 ), or carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H2O). Other elements within the fuels (such as sulfur or nitrogen) are also released into the air after combining with oxygen, causing further pollution with SO2 and nitrogen oxide gases. In the case of coal, ash particles are also a problem.
non-renewable energy. Used to describe energy sources that exist in a limited amount on Earth. Thus all available material could eventually be completely used up. Coal, oil and gas (see fossil fuels) are considered as non-renewable energy sources because the rate of their formation is so slow on human timescales that they we are using them without them being replaced. Uranium (used in nuclear power) is also non-renewable, although its reserves are very large compared to its rate of use. Compare renewable energy.
passive solar heating.The use of the sun to heat buildings. Careful design and positioning of buildings can ensure that sunlight in the winter months will warm them by day, with much of the warmth remaining during the night. Summer sunlight is usually kept out. This does not involve the conversion or harnessing of solar energy.
photovoltaic (PV) cells.Also known as solar cells. A photovoltaic cell is made of thin wafers of two slightly different types of silicon. One, doped with tiny quantities of boron, is called P-type (P for positive) and contains positively charged 'holes', which are missing electrons. (Electrons are negatively charged particles that orbit the nuclei of atoms.) The other type of silicon is doped with small amounts of phosphorus and is called N-type (N for negative). It contains extra electrons. Putting these two thin P and N materials together produces a junction which, when exposed to light, will produce a movement of electrons – and that constitutes an electric current. Photovoltaic cells thus convert light energy into electrical energy.
Compared to fossil fuels, sunlight is a weak energy source Capturing sunlight is not as easy as it sounds. It is a dilute energy source, spread out over time and space. Earth receives 5.6 x 10^18 megajoules of solar radiation each year, but to make it worthwhile we need to collect it over many hours and across many square metres of ground. We then need to concentrate it so as to make available the sort of power that modern society needs. Sunlight is not as ‘energy-dense’ as oil but this is made up for by the fact that it is present over such a large area.
By careful design and positioning of houses we can use sunlight to warm our homes and our domestic water. This passive solar heating can help us reduce fossil fuel use (and save money) but it’s not enough to replace those traditional fuels entirely.
Solar energy is derived ultimately from the sun. It can be divided into direct and indirect categories. Most energy sources on Earth are forms of indirect solar energy, although we usually don’t think of them in that way. Coal, oil and natural gas derive from ancient biological material which took its energy from the sun (via plant photosynthesis) millions of years ago. All the energy in wood and foodstuffs also comes from the sun. Movement of the wind (which causes waves at sea), and the evaporation of water to form rainfall which accumulates in rivers and lakes, are also powered by the sun. Therefore, hydroelectric power and wind and wave power are forms of indirect solar energy. Direct solar energy is what we usually mean when we speak of solar power – it is the use of sunlight for heating or generating electricity. Solar energy research and applications have been receiving increasing attention throughout the world as solar energy must play a much greater role in the energy mix in upcoming years. This new book examines new research in this frontier field.
The death and fossilization of plants and animals gave us the dirty energy we rely on today; but it's living organisms that will give us the clean energy of the future.
In recent years, researchers have more aggressively explored how plants, animals, fungi and bacteria can help us develop next-generation fuels and electricity. Nature, it seems, has much to teach about the efficiency of energy conversion and consumption.
Take photosynthesis, for example. When a plant’s pigment molecules absorb photons, they enter an excited state that is moved to the “reaction center,” a chlorophyll molecule called the protein complex. The reaction center is where the plant first generates chemical energy. This energy transfer is instantaneous and happens with almost 100 percent efficiency. Now researchers are trying to figure out how to design photovoltaic cells that mimic this virtually flawless process.
Apparently, it’s getting easier to be green on the sly. A new generation of rooftop solar energy collectors is here, and they’re not the huge, cumbersome solar panels we’re used to. These actually look like part of the roof. American chemical giant Dow (or, rather, their Dow Solar division) recently announced their building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roof shingles, which they say will bring affordable solar power to more homes. There isn’t yet any pricing information available, so we have to wonder what Dow considers “affordable.” But the panels do, in fact, look much more integrated with the home than huge, wing-like solar panels. And with some homeowners’ associations banning the large panels, this may be just the answer for solar-minded homeowners.
Dow's Powerhouse Solar Shingles promise to turn sunlight into savings. Consumer Reports takes a look at the 2010 International Builders' Show. Learn more about roofing and siding on our web site
Solar panels have long been the first thing that comes to mind when we think about incorporating eco-friendly energy solutions into daily life. But traditional solar panels have their drawbacks, most notably that they only catch a portion of the sunlight falling on a building. A company called SMIT wants to increase the amount of solar energy captured by “green” homes by covering them with solar panels that mimic crawling ivy plants.
It makes sense if you think about it: using highways to collect solar power. The Interstate System in the U.S. is comprised of over 46,000 miles of road, and a startup company called Solar Roadways was recently granted $100,000 by the Department of Transportation to develop their 12 foot-by-12 foot solar-collecting road panels. According to Solar Roadways, the panels can be set into roads to not only provide an improved driving surface, but to collect solar power that will be put into the existing electric grid.
We all know the benefits of hanging our laundry out to dry: it saves money and energy over using a tumble dryer, and your clothes and linens smell great when you pull them inside. Seeing laundry hanging outside on clotheslines gave designer Jinsic Kim another idea for saving energy: hanging small solar panels outside to soak up the sun.
For point-to-point measurements along a straight line, the answer has long been obvious to architects and engineers. But in a world with increasingly unusual built forms, not to mention mapped courses that are not always narrowly linear, this neat concept design offers a slim and elegant solution.
